Sporting Life

Page Tools

Motivation is a vital element of football and it would appear that
Port Adelaide had an abundance of it when it took on and beat St
Kilda in Tasmania last weekend.

Not only did it have the embarrassment of the previous week's
117-point capitulation to West Coast to make up for, but it would
seem a group of drunken St Kilda supporters - it's unsure whether
they were locals or Melbourne-based fans who had flown over for the
game - made the Power boys all the more determined to win.

The story of the boozy Saints fans was spelt out on Port's website
yesterday by dashing forward Stuart Dew, who pens
a regular column called Over Dewww.

Praising Tasmania for its excellent facilities, including
Launceston's Country Club Villas where the team stayed, he was not
so complimentary about some of the other villa guests.

Wrote Dew: "Although these people won't read it (well Stu, they
might now), I would like to thank the group of intoxicated St Kilda
supporters who woke myself and several other teammates by
prematurely singing the St Kilda song at 3am the night before the
game.

"We were motivated enough, but after their effort that would not
have made it past the first round of Australian Idol, we
were well up for the game! Thanks fellas."

In case you have forgotten, Port won the game by 23 points, a win
set up early in the match (no doubt when those Saints songs would
still have been ringing in the players' ears) when Mark
Williams' boys kicked seven of the first nine goals.

No more No.52, thanks

Robert Allenby has dined at all manner of exotic
restaurants on his travels, but suddenly, it seems certain dishes
do not agree with him. In recent weeks, the Melbourne golfer has
had a swelling in his hands, which he suspects has something to do
with some dishes, specifically the Chinese variety, as he
discovered during last week's Memorial tournament. "I had kung pao
shrimp and the next morning, I felt like crap," said Allenby, who
finished equal-52nd. "That's twice now I've eaten the same dish and
the joints in my hands have blown up." Allenby suspects he is
allergic to a particular spice, probably chilli.

How many you had?

The MCG and Telstra Dome may be friendly neighbours - and run by a
couple of Bluebaggers (Stephen Gough at the 'G and
Ian Collins at the Dome) - but that doesn't mean
there isn't some friendly rivalry as well. No sooner had the
Dock-lands stadium announced this week that it had welcomed through
its gates its one millionth AFL patron (all up, 1,056,462 fans) for
2005 than the MCG also issued a press release saying its season
attendances tally was 973,415 (up 190,852 for the same 22-game
period last year) and that No. 1,000,000 would be reached during
tomorrow's Hawthorn-St Kilda game. Telstra Dome's figures also
include all its Wizard Cup matches, so perhaps the fairest
compari-son is average attendances - the MCG's is 44,246 and the
Dome's 37,600.

Frank and earnest
The AFL's salary cap regulations may prevent a club from paying its
players more than $6.3 million a year, but no such restraints exist
on European soccer clubs such as English Premier League champion
Chelsea.

It was revealed yesterday that the total wage bill of the London
club (which is bankrolled by Russian billionaire Roman
Abramovich) reached $275 million in its 2003-04 season,
the highest in world football.

Put another way, Lampard earns about the same as all the players of
any two AFL clubs combined.

Goran's sinking feeling

If you hear the name Goran Ivanisevic mentioned in
dispatches in the next few weeks or so, it's because he is back
playing tennis, this time on the senior tour, although not so much
because he wants to but he has to. The 2001 Wimbledon champion
revealed this week that his construction business investments in
Croatia have gone horribly wrong. "Unfortunately, my investments
sunk like Titanic," said the 33-year-old. "From the beginning,
everything went wrong. Every single investment that I have made in
Croatia has failed."

No kidding

Regardlesss of what you think about sledging in cricket, it would
appear to work, especially when the Australians, and not just the
cricketers either, dish it out to the England players.

The Ashes tour has not even started yet and already some of the
Poms, most notably skipper Michael Vaughan, are
talking about how the Aussies unnerve them. Vaughan admitted this
week that on the 2002-03 trip down under, even young boys in the
street would whisper behind his back and laugh at him.

"Look," he imagined them saying, "there's one of those loser
Poms."

On yer bike, Skaifey
The Australian V8 supercar drivers have been feted by the Chinese
since arriving in Shanghai this week for Sunday's historic round of
the championships, but there has been a limit to how far the locals
will go.

Holden driver Rick Kelly had no trouble
temporarily commandeering this trans port bike, albeit for a happy
snap to send back home, but no such luck for his teammate
Mark Skaife.

Yesterday, when he arrived at the track where Sunday's race will be
held, Skaife hopped into the driver's seat of the bus carrying the
big Australian press contingent and announced he was taking them on
a guided tour of the course.

He didn't get far. Before he had even turned the ignition on, the
Chinese driver turfed him out, saying if he allowed the Australian
to drive his bus, he probably would get the sack.

What's up, boys?

Wonder what was up for discussion when Blues leaders Ian
Collins and Denis Pagan dined at Becco
restaurant in the city on Wednesday. Obviously they had a lot to
talk about because, according to our spy, it was "a very, very long
lunch".

No putts about it

And this, for all you golf hackers as you contemplate another
weekend of battles with the little white ball, particularly while
putting. American Stewart Cink has now played 259 consecutive holes
without a three-putt, the longest current streak on the US PGA
Tour.

Who said that?

"I'm going to gut him like a fish." - MIKE TYSON's prediction
about his heavyweight bout this weekend with Kevin
McBride.